Fitness – Badminton Cafehttp://www.badmintoncafe.com
Covering Badminton in IndiaSat, 25 May 2019 00:56:34 +0000en-UShourly1https://wordpress.org/?v=4.5.17OVERCOME NERVOUSNESShttp://www.badmintoncafe.com/overcome-nervousness/
http://www.badmintoncafe.com/overcome-nervousness/#respondThu, 25 Jul 2013 01:45:40 +0000http://www.badmintoncafe.com/?p=202Before a badminton player begins a match, he or she may seem to be steady and calm. But as the time draws nearer to enter the court, nervousness begin to sip in and all of a sudden the player feels unconfident.

The time that was used for the strenuous hours of training suddenly seemed insufficient to take on their opponents. Nervousness begins to take over all emotions and players begin to tell themselves that they are going to lose a match which they have yet to begin.

Everything seems to be all going wrong at this point of time. But this is a normal behavior. It is perfectly normal to feel this way when a player is about to begin his first match in a competition, especially if it’s the first competition that he or she is participating.

Being nervous in a game can cost a player to lose it. When a player feels nervous, he or she cannot be able to perform at his peak. Strokes cannot be delivered and unforced errors begin to happen. The heart beats faster than usual and players begin to feel tired very quickly compared to his normal training sessions.

All this are because of jittery nerves. Ever feel yourself in this position before? Well…there are a few things that you can do to reduce such nervousness in a badminton game.

1.Do not give up and don’t tell yourself that you are going to lose when the game has not even started.

2.Be confident in yourself. Do not let the opponent’s reputation instill fear in you. If he/she is more popular in the badminton circle, this should inspire you more to win him as you have no pressure at all because you are the underdog.

3.Prepare yourself mentally and think of what your strengths are the night before the competition. This is to boost your own confidence and let you focus on the strengths that you have to beat and overcome your opponent.

4.Always concentrate on the game and not what others say. Do not let others influence you by saying that it is impossible to win someone who is greater than you. Nothing is impossible in this world.

5.Be determined of what you want to achieve the moment you step into the court. Be sure of the goals that you want and work towards it!

6.Do something that you can relax to before the game starts. Such as listening to some music that can calm and soothe your nerves or laughing and joking around with your friends.

Sometimes being nervous inside a badminton court is not exactly bad. Not all bad things are bad as you can change negative influences to positive ones. It is the way you look at things.

Being nervous sometimes gives a person that extra adrenaline rush which can lead to their victory, but if a player is unable to manage those nerves and give in to it, half the battle will already be lost before it has even started.

Being nervous before a game is something everyone has to go through in life when they play their first competition. Cold sweat and cold palms are alright.

It is impossible to eliminate nervousness each time we step into the court for a match. To improve is not how you eliminate nervousness, but it is how well you manage it and how you use it to help yourself.

]]>http://www.badmintoncafe.com/overcome-nervousness/feed/0MENTAL TOUGHNESShttp://www.badmintoncafe.com/mental-toughness/
http://www.badmintoncafe.com/mental-toughness/#respondThu, 25 Jul 2013 01:35:16 +0000http://www.badmintoncafe.com/?p=193Many Badminton players are good in the physical aspect but not tough enough mentally. A badminton player can have all the fitness, power, agility and skills but without the presence of mental toughness, he or she can be affected mentally anytime, anywhere. Marathon runners are good examples. Normally most of the marathon runners reach their stamina limits in the last 12 KM over 42 KM. But their strong mental ability allows them to keep running at the same pace to finish the race. Some runners even increase their speed to finish the race although they are already exhausted.

Marathon runners call this method ‘hitting the wall’, meaning pushing to the limit. Even the legendary Tan Yee Khan of Malaysia uses the method of ‘hitting the wall’. This method should be applied by badminton players who aspire to go one step further in the game. Whether it is during the game or training, players should keep focusing and pushing their body to the limit.

A match could take a rather long time to end. A good badminton player or in other words an ‘established badminton player’ will not go down without a fight and should be able to keep their pace and the accuracy of their shots until the very last point in the game no matter how long they have played. This is where mental toughness plays a big role.

You can be a very skillful player and fit player but if you meet an opponent who has a much higher level of stamina and fighting spirits, you will very likely lose the match if without the ability to push yourself when you are exhausted. There are plenty of instances whereby players are not strong enough mentally and emotionally, lost focus because of tiredness and gave up easily in the game.

Sometimes you can be leading far ahead in the game like reaching game points or match points and you are already thinking about victory. This should not be a habit of a badminton player because you might lose the game if you meet a player with great fighting spirits. You maybe be leading 14-0 or 19-10 but no matter how far you lead, you still have to stay focus until the game is over.

A good case in point would be the game that featured Hafiz Hashim and Lee Hyun ll in the quarter finals of the 2006 DOHA Asian Games. Hafiz was leading 19-10 at one stage in the first set, but could not stay focus and lost the set 22-20 in the end. He could not recover from this set back in the second set and lost the tie. Lee Hyun ll showed his mental toughness and fighting spirits in this instance.

A good player should always possess the ‘never say die’ attitude even if their opponents are leading by a huge margin just as Lee Hyun ll has shown in the Asian Games. Another good case in point would be the game in between Lee Chong Wei and Lin Dan during the Malaysia Open 2006.

Lin Dan was already leading 20-13 in the rubber game and this was a really difficult situation for Lee Chong Wei because one mistake is enough to cost him the match. But he handled the pressure well and showed a greater desire to win, slowly clawing back in to the game. Finally, he won that game 22-20 and surprised the whole world.

Mental toughness can also give you an edge like focusing on the match no matter what is happening around, keeping you calm and cool in the court. Having mental toughness is having a high EQ (emotional intelligence). Many incidents, good or bad, can happen during a match outside or inside the court. For example, players can be psychologically affected by bad line calls, umpires decisions or insulted by the audience.

There were cases of top players which were emotionally affected such as the case in one of the game which featured Taufik Hidayat in an Indonesian local tournament. He was insulted by an audience that directed harsh words at him. Taufik then runs up to the audience chair and confronted him.

During Thomas cup 2002 Finals in Guangzhou and 2002 Busan Asian Games he fell prey again to his emotionally vulnerability caused by the umpire’s decisions and bad line calls which led him to lose the game. In the 2006 HK open, he walked out of a semifinal game against Lin Dan because of a bad line call. No doubt he is a very good player, but if he could just control his emotions a bit better, he can be one of the all-time greats.

In many cases, players without much exposure are easily intimidated by the situation on hand and were not able to play their usual game. Mental toughness is needed to overcome all the fear with a ‘nothing to lose’, ‘give everything you got’ mentality. When fear is overcome, the confidence will be there to win the game. You need to keep thinking positively in the game, no matter what happens.

Badminton players should be equally strong, physically and mentally. Mental toughness will determine your success as a badminton player and will help you attain consistent achievements.

]]>http://www.badmintoncafe.com/mental-toughness/feed/0MOTIVATIONhttp://www.badmintoncafe.com/motivation/
Thu, 25 Jul 2013 01:26:50 +0000http://www.badmintoncafe.com/?p=182Try to answer the following questions first. How did George Washington defeat the English to liberate US? How did Magellan voyage around the world when navigation systems were primitive? How did Alexander and Chengiz Khan conquer much of the world in their time? Well, the answer lies in a single magic word. MOTIVATION. May be this is the single most important word which has made us what we are today. The same applies to badminton as well. If you have the motivation to play badminton well, you will.

You know, it is no longer true that champions are born, not bred. It has been conclusively proved that it is the motivation to excel in big stage, which separates champions from others. It is similar to the hare and tortoise story where the motivation to do consistently well was the single factor, which the tortoise followed to defeat the hare.

But for motivation to come, one must heartily like badminton. You cannot get motivation to do something unless you like it. Your motivation will naturally tell you that badminton is an easy game and that you can play it well.

But is it enough? Surely no. Because next you need motivation to focus on your game to play good badminton. You must focus on your strengths as well as weaknesses. It means you have to fine tune your strengths and minimize your weaknesses by constantly practicing them well. For example, if you are weak in smashing, you concentrate smashing well in your practice, believing that you can smash well.

When in constant practice, the various body parts perfectly synchronize themselves without you realizing it when we play different badminton strokes. In this process, our reaction time is saved by microseconds in a crunch game, which is sufficient to overrun the opponent in a fast game like badminton.

For you to focus, you must have the motivation to avoid the distractions that come with badminton. For example, where will you focus when you are playing in front of hundreds of noisy spectators supporting your opponent and crying for your blood?

Well, you focus on the shuttlecock and shut out everything else. You will realize the importance of avoiding distractions if you understand that while the hare got distracted by everything in its path, the tortoise just focused with motivation on the finish line and came first.

You must also have motivation to develop a positive attitude to play good badminton. It has been observed that the motivation, not the ability, to play the toughest and unimaginable shots taking the rival by surprise is what separates badminton champions from average players. The champions even surprise themselves when doing so.

Obviously, having a positive attitude alone is not sufficient if you have the fear of getting defeated. Failure fear is one thing, which prevented legendary tennis player Ivan Lendl from winning Wimbledon throughout his career.

For you to develop motivation to eliminate fear of failure, it is essential for you to understand that playing badminton is not a war and failing in a game is not a crime. You are not going to be prosecuted or shot at. You can always get up the next morning to play better badminton.

Finally, motivation to read the opponent and anticipating in advance as to what shot he is going to play at you is the clinching factor in making you a true badminton champion. It gives you a few milliseconds extra in executing your stroke better.

It is a proven fact that an expert professional badminton player decides faster on what side his opponent is going to smash than an average amateur player, enabling him to earn a few milliseconds to tune his response better to the shot.

]]>MENTAL APPROACHhttp://www.badmintoncafe.com/mental-approach/
http://www.badmintoncafe.com/mental-approach/#respondThu, 25 Jul 2013 01:17:39 +0000http://www.badmintoncafe.com/?p=173It is very essential that you must have proper mental approach and psychology to indulge in and shine in badminton. Without these you will flounder like a rudderless ship in badminton.

Your mental approach should be proper regarding both your training schedule and performance schedule. Similarly you should psychologically motivate yourself to training sessions as much as to playing sessions.

Stage 1 is commitment. Unless you commit yourself mentally and not just physically, you are not going to enjoy the fruits of success. It is the first and foremost quality required for you to perform, let alone excel. Commitment should be intense for both training and playing.

Stage 2 is goal setting. You must have clear cut goals regarding your fitness level and playing proficiency. You must list out your weaknesses in your fitness schedule and game, be it an exercise regimen or a drop, smash, serving close to the net or whatever else it may be. Specific attention has to be paid to strengthen these areas.

Stage 3 is maintaining a positive attitude. Two negatives make a positive only in mathematics. In sports, two negatives make you next to nothing. Your speech, attitude, mannerisms, on and off court behavior should all exude confidence which others should perceive and comment about.

Stage 4 is feeling good about what you are doing. You must learn to enjoy your training and playing schedules. To put it very simple, a player should feel playing badminton as an enjoyable hobby rather than an unavoidable routine. When you really feel good about playing badminton, even the most challenging of shots can be executed with such fluency to keep you surprised enough.

Stage 5 is believing in your performance. If you don’t believe in yourself, no one else is going to. Remember, not everyone in badminton started as world number one right from their first match. They started from nowhere, believed in their performance match after match, day after day whether they lost or won. And finally one day, they found themselves in the top. Unless they believe in their performance, they could not have scaled those heights.

Stage 6 is developing the knowledge regarding badminton. Look around all the legends past and present. Watch their games, either in television or in person. See how they tackle specific match situations. Imbibe their methods. Try it for yourself. If possible, talk to senior players, coaches and learn how to cope up with different game plans and training schedules. If possible, persuade them to watch you play and ask them to point out your weaknesses. It is very essential for you to have the knowledge of your weaknesses as much as the opponents’ for you to play better badminton.

Stage 7 is concentrating on the basic aspects of the game. Remember, how much ever high the bird fly, it has to come to the ground for food and drink. Similarly, you must always concentrate on the basic aspects of the game even after becoming proficient in it. That way, you can keep your feet planted firmly to the ground while reaching for the skies with your hands. Good luck and happy playing.